"What do you mean, Vihr? That's a challenger without the slightest transcendent heritage.... Do I need to remind you why there have only been exactly six legendary authority holders?" Ness voice rose an octave; it could be seen that Vihr had touched a nerve with his comment.
To Ness's words, Vihr simply shook his head before explaining the intent behind his words.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he'll necessarily be able to reach the Sixth Summit... All I'm saying is that since six challengers made it in the past, who's saying there can't be another?"
Vihr spoke calmly without any change in his voice, but seeing that Ness was about to speak up once more, he decided to add a few more words.
"... or do you plan to reach the Fifth summit and not even attempt the Sixth, all because no other challenger was able to make it in the past thousand years?" This question had Ness pause again as she finally understood what Vihr was saying.
At first, she was infuriated because she felt that Vihr was diminishing the status of their father — the Light Emperor. One of the seven Legendary Transcendent figures who was able to reach the Sixth Summit.
To Ness, the Emperor was a godlike entity; the notion that an unknown commoner could reach the same summit felt absurd.
"...by the way, that challenger is no commoner. He's a Cross." Vihr decided to add this too because it seemed like he was the only one who really noticed.
"How'd you know that? There's no Cross enrolled in the Academy this year. There's no way a member of the Cross family could enroll and remain unnoticed." Lucas was the one who spoke this time; as someone who prided himself on intelligence gathering, having such a crucial detail slip past him felt impossible.
Vihr turned to look at Lucas with subtle contempt at having his words questioned, but he explained nonetheless. "I'm not sure how he stayed unnoticed till this moment, but he's definitely a Cross."
"Precisely, the youngest Cross, judging by the finger he wore his family signet on."
"Myu can confirm this; I'm sure she noticed the Ring."
All eyes turned to Myu, who had eyes on Arthur in the distance. "I couldn't make out the crest on his ring, but he had one on his thumb. Combined with the silver-white hair, it's definitely enough to lean toward that conclusion."
"A Cross...." Henry muttered under his breath. Among all their families, only the Crosses and the Royal Lineage possessed Transcendents who had awakened a Legendary Authority on the Sixth Summit. And now, another Cross was rapidly approaching that same threshold.
Ness gritted her teeth, refusing to concede. "It still doesn't mean anything... If reaching the Sixth Summit was possible because you came from a transcendent family. The Crosses would have more than a single Legendary Authority holder.
Although neither Henry, Lucas, nor Myu spoke out against Ness. Vihr was her brother; he didn't need to tread lightly around her status or temper. This chapter was copied from novelping dot com without permission.
"There you go again, speaking the Sixth Summit is an impossible goal..... tsk tsk," Vihr said nothing more, knowing his sister's stubborn nature all too well.
Meanwhile, Arthur finally arrived at the fifth summit.
"It seems a lot easier this time... Not bad!" Arthur nodded to himself in satisfaction as he waited for the tower to do its thing.
[Congratulations, challenger, on reaching the Fifth Summit]
[The tower is awakening your Edict]
Edict? Arthur remained as clueless as ever upon seeing the reward for the fifth summit.
Glancing back down for a moment, he saw that the challengers closest to the fifth summit were still at least sixty steps away.
"It sure would be nice to understand what any of this means."
Arthur only looked behind him for a moment before deciding to sit, since it looked like the tower was gonna take a while to be done with the rewards this time.
Although right before he could take a seat, he began to feel his aura core churn out what seemed to be a sinister violet energy.
The energy being drawn out from his core was not under his control; even if he wanted to stop the process forcibly, it was totally beyond his control.
It seemed more like the function of the core within his body was hijacked without interfering with the normal function of his body.
Dense violet energy continuously churned out from his body in waves, but instead of dispersing into the atmosphere, it all floated before him like a rolling cloud of violet mist.
This continued for almost ten seconds until the energy before his eyes grew from the football-sized cloud of energy into a giant cloud of energy.
Just as Arthur began to worry that the energy output would never stop, a sudden shift occurred.
The churning stream from his core abruptly cut off, replaced by a faint, low buzzing.
Nothing about that sound felt safe, so sensing danger, he took a few steps backwards, giving himself a good distance from the buzzing cluster of energy. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
The buzzing sound only grew with each passing moment, making Arthur wish he wasn't alone on this floor at the moment.
The energy floating silently suddenly had a single faint golden glyph drawn across its form from thin air, like a prelude to a multitude of changes.
More glyphs began to appear, rolling into each other and connecting at various locations, with the buzzing intensifying.
He seemed to be witnessing the birth of something extraordinary as the energy, which had stayed the same size the entire time, began to collapse upon itself.
It almost seemed like the midpoint on the glyphs was the point of collapse. The energy rapidly compressed as its form began to change slowly.
Within this change, the glyphs began to fade into the solid form that was being created, like they never existed in the first place.
The final form was a simple violet hitless sword: no crossguard, no wrapped grip, no polished pommel.
What floated mid-air before his eyes was a sinister-looking sword that closely resembled a katana, that is, if a Katana had no hilt, just a violet, unbroken blade that reflected the light that hit its form.
[The challenger has awakened an Edict of Authority]
Arthur read through the text silently before focusing his gaze on the blade before his eyes, floating while giving off a faint buzzing sound that, compared to when it was still taking form, was barely noticeable.
He felt a subtle connection to the blade before his eyes, almost the same way he felt a connection to the aura core when it was awakened on the first summit.
"So beautiful..."
The blade seemed to disturb the wind flow around its form, but this was only noticeable because Arthur's face was no more than three inches from it, observing closely.
Finally, after staring at his Edict for a while, he mustered up the confidence to touch it, hoping to feel it more carefully with his hands.
But right at the moment his finger made contact with the cold surface of the blade, it vanished instantly.